Devotion
by Arctic Banana
Summary: A Big Daddy's job is to protect his Little Sister, right to the very end.


_I was playing Bioshock last night. I feel so bad everytime I kill the Big Daddies and make the Little Sisters cry. Anyway, I just felt like writing this this morning, and I haven't submited anything in like two months anyway, so I figured why not?_

_Fun fact: The first Big Daddy I ever hypnotized was a Rosie that I named Peanut. Then I had to put Peanut down because I accidentally bumped the R2 button, and those damn L2/R2 buttons on the PS3 controller are really sensitive to the point where you only have to touch them to make them go off, so it made me shoot him in the back. Poor Peanut._

* * *

Lumbering around through the dystopia that was Rapture, the Big Daddy made his way to retrieve his Little Sister. He walked under a leak, temporarily blurring his vision as the water ran down his porthole-eyes. All around him, Splicers scattered, none of them wanting to set him off if they got too close. They wouldn't attack him. Not now anyway, since it wasn't worth it unless his Little Sister was actually with him. They wouldn't want to get into a fight they may not win unless they could actually get some kind of reward out of killing him, after all.

Walking up to the vent where his Little Sister was hiding on the other side, he hit the wall with his drill to call her. He was promptly greeted with a cheerful, "Hi, Mr. Bubbles!" while his Sister climbed out. Helping her to the ground, he followed her wherever she may lead him. "Hurry Mr. B. Angels don't wait for slowpokes," she chastised him when his slow speed caused him to fall a bit behind.

Splicers everywhere shuddered and ran like cowards at the familiar sound of his whale-like call and the heavy thud of his boots, knowing that he'd be even more on edge with his Little Sister with him. He could tell they wanted her and the ADAM she carried, but fear outweighed their greed as the knowledge of what he would do to them if they became a threat rang through their minds. But of course there was always that one idiot somewhere who was greedy enough for ADAM to challenge him, which caused him to keep his guard up nonetheless. When finally the one idiot challenged him, he reacted as was expected of his programming, placing himself between his Sister and her threat and brutally lashing out against the Splicer. The fight was mostly one-sided and ended with the target being pinned against the wall by a spinning drill. Tossing what was left of the carcass aside, he continued escorting his Sister.

"Look Mr. B! An angel!" his Little Sister said as she led him to a decaying corpse lying against a wall. He patiently waited for her, looking around to make sure the coast was clear while she extracted ADAM from the body. He gently pat her shoulder with the love and adoration he had for her when she stood up once more and walked off in search of more ADAM. How much of that devotion was genuinely his he'd never know. He was programmed to feel that way about her, to selflessly protect her and destroy anything that threatened to harm her. He didn't know anything else, couldn't even remember who he once was before he became a Big Daddy, just that the little one skipping along in front of him needed his protection.

His Little Sister came to a stop and quickly shouted "Get away!" before running behind his leg. Standing in an adjacent doorway was a man who simply stood there and stared at them both, a shotgun in hand. He didn't look like any Splicer he had seen…to the contrary, he looked like an outsider to Rapture, like he'd just gotten there recently. For a while they both stood staring at each other, as if challenging each other to do something. After a few moments of neither of them instigating something, the Big Daddy figured that maybe he wasn't a threat after all and continued on his way, shooing his Little Sister in front of him to keep her where he could see her. After taking a few steps, he heard a shotgun blast and felt a sharp pinch of pain hit him in the back.

His porthole lights turned a bright red, revealing the absolute rage that he felt right now. He spun around and charged the man who had dared to attack him, ignoring the pain as three more shotgun blasts pierced his diving suit and damaged the fragile organs contained within. He pushed him to the wall roughly and attempted to skewer him with his drill. The only thing he could hear was his own freakish whale shrieks and his Little Sister calling out, "Get him, Mr. B!" Before he could finish the man off, his entire body burst into flames when he'd hit him with a burst of Incinerate, giving the man enough time to reload his shotgun and hit him with a finishing blast.

Collapsing on the ground, his diving suit left black and charred as the fire died out, the Daddy tried to locate his Sister. She made it easy by coming to him, crying "Mr. Bubbles! Please wake up!" He tried to touch her, to let her know everything was alright, but his arm collapsed beside him when his once brutal strength failed. She clung to his blackened diving suit and sobbed into it, too young and innocent to understand why he would not get up. Her cries were the last thing he heard as he faded out. Unable to defend her anymore, a final thought occurred to him. The stranger had saved him from his tormented existence, but would he save his Little Sister from hers?


End file.
